Working in museums, one of the things we often talk about is the disparity in what ends up in a museum costume collection compared to what people actually wear.  Collections are full of wedding gowns and ballgowns: memories of the grandest moments of our lives.  On a day to day basis though, people wear much simpler clothes: practical, interchangeable items.  Today this is jeans and t-shirts, but throughout history even the wealthiest have worn simple separates for the less momentous occasions. The Historical Sew Fortnightly Challenge #16 is all about Separates: items that can be paired with other pieces in your wardrobe to extend a look. My favourite anecdote about separates involves Queen Victoria and her future daughter-in-law Alexandra.  On being introduced the Alexandra, the Queen noticed that she wore a skirt with one jacket one day, and the same skirt, with a different jacket, the next day.  Victoria was delighted.  To her, this indicated a frugal and practical nature: just the thing to balance the son that she and Albert had viewed as overly …

The Historical Sew Fortnightly Challenge #15 is our first colour challenge* for the year, and I’m easing you into it slowly, picking a colour that has lots of options for really easy makes (you can never have too many chemises…) and has appeared in every possible period. White has carried many connotations as a colour, from defining culture and social boundaries in Ancient Egypt (only foreigners and those connected to the afterlife wore colour), to denoting status (white was often an expensive colour to produce and maintain), to implying purity, or simply cleanliness. For this challenge ‘white’ is defined as anything in the white family – from brightest white, through to ivory and cream and all the shades between. Whether you make a simple chemise or an elaborate ballgown, your garment should be predominantly white, though it may have touches of other colours. Here are some of my favourite white garments, from the sublime to the ridiculous.  I’ve posted a lot of fabulously over the top garments, but, of course, little accessories and undergarments are …

The Historical Sew Fortnightly ‘Flora and Fauna’ challenge fortnight starts on Tuesday, and I’m SO excited about it. I love using the natural world as inspiration: I’ve done it with the Juno Gown (melding Greek/Roman mythology and nature with the peacock motif) and with the Luna Moth gown, plus the Laurel Gown, which also used natural motifs and classical inspiration.  I also do it with not-so-historical garments, like Carolyn’s wedding gown, which borrowed from both butterflies and fish, and with Shell’s wedding dress, which borrowed from native New Zealand birds. There are so many different ways to interpret ‘Flora and Fauna’ – you can simply use fabrics that depict flora or fauna, or fabrics made from flora or fauna, or can add in flora and fauna based motif, or you could create a garment that is inspired by the aesthetic of a particular bit of flora or fauna.  The last bit brings to mind the yellow and black Regency dress that I posted a few months back that many people felt had been inspired by …